Brazil, Finland, Greece, Turkey given wildcards for FIBA World Cup

One South American squad and three teams from Europe have been given wildcards for the FIBA Basketball World Cup in August this year.

The four nations joins the Philippines and 19 other teams in the biggest international hoops tournament.

Brazil, Finland, Greece, and Turkey have been given slots to the World Cup.

Brazil, currently has five players in the NBA: Vitor Faverani, Celtics, Anderson Varejao, Cavs, Tiago Splitter, Spurs, Leandro Barbosa, Suns and Nene of the Wizards.

Finland has no active NBA player, Greece has rookie Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Bucks while Turkey,the host of 2010 Fiba World Championship where they finished second to the eventual champion USA, has four: Omer Asik, Rockets, Hedo Turkoglu, Clippers, Ersan Ilyasova, Bucks and Enes Kanter of the Jazz.

The Gilas Pilipinas national team is one of three qualifiers from Asia, alongside FIBA Asia champion Iran and second runner-up South Korea.

Reigning Olympic champion United States and host Spain have been seeded automatically into the tournament.

Angola, Egypt, and Senegal have qualified from FIBA Africa, while Australia and New Zealand will represent FIBA Oceania.

Mexico, Puerto Rico, Argentina, and the Dominican Republic join the fray from FIBA Americas, while France, Lithuania, Croatia, Slovenia, the Ukraine, and Serbia joined the event through the FIBA EuroBasket tournament.

Gilas coach Chot Reyes is already in Spain for the draw on Monday, which will determine the groupings and host city of the Philippine team for the World Cup, which begins in August.

The Philippines will be making its return to the world basketball stage for the first time in four decades.